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By Calem Illig
sports@altoonamirror.com
NANTY GLO -- With two outs in the bottom of the seventh and a chance to end the game, Portage's Connor Binaut had a tough play.
Facing No. 2 Blacklick Valley in Monday's District 6 Class 1A quarterfinal, Binaut fielded a grounder but miscalculated his throw to first and allowed the tying run to score.
Binaut kept a short memory and drove in the go-ahead run in extra innings, and after being called to step on the mound, he quickly made up for his earlier mistake.
He struck out the side in the bottom of the eighth to deliver a 6-5 victory for seventh-seeded Portage and set up a date with Bishop Carroll on Friday.
"If I ever made a bad play or messed up, I always used to bring myself down the whole game," Binaut said. "My dad (Brian) told me that I needed to stop doing that, so I took his advice and just worked through it today. I took breaths with every pitch, and that got me through it."
Down to its last out in the seventh inning, Blacklick Valley (12-7) had runners on first and third but appeared to be on its way out after a grounder bounced to Binaut.
The senior shortstop couldn't connect on his throw to first base, however, and the error allowed both Jordan Kotelnicki and Alex Reba to score and tie the game.
Binaut put the Mustangs ahead in the eighth with a sacrifice fly that drove home Brady Cochran, but he faced another tall challenge after stepping on the hill in the bottom half of the inning with the tying run on third.
Despite the runner standing only 90 feet away from knotting the game up once again, Binaut fanned the next two batters to push the Mustangs to the next round.
"I just threw all fastballs," Binaut said. "I threw one curveball, but it didn't work too well, and I didn't trust it enough with a guy on third. I just threw fastballs and located them pretty well."
Portage jumped to an early two-run lead with the help of two Vikings' errors that scored Binaut and Easton Slanoc.
The Mustangs had only two hits entering the seventh inning, but after Blacklick Valley pulled starting pitcher Hayden Williams, they finally found their groove.
With the new arm on the hill, Binaut doubled and Trae Kargo was walked. Following a long at-bat, Slanoc launched a line drive down to right field to drive both runners home and provide the Mustangs with a temporary lead.
"I felt really comfortable with us up by two runs in the seventh inning, but we just fluttered and gave them momentum," Portage coach Larry McCabe said. "I know Connor had a bad play on what could've ended the game, but he walked right back out there and struck the side out. That tells you a lot about a senior captain like him."
It was a tie game when Williams was pulled with two outs in the seventh, and while he would have been permitted to pitch another at-bat with 102 pitches (PIAA rules allow for 105 pitches in the playoffs), Vikings coach Garry Wurm opted to pull his ace as fatigue was starting to set in.
Blacklick Valley utilized three different relief pitchers who allowed four walks, three hits and three runs.
"We don't usually use four pitchers," Wurm said. "Hayden started really strong but was getting tired toward the end. We had some guys who came in and got into a couple jams with some walks. But that's just baseball."
Portage now shifts its attention to the semifinals where it will travel to face No. 6 Bishop Carroll on Friday.
"We got our hands full on Friday," McCabe said. "They're going to be tough. We know what we have to do, but our season moves on. I'm proud of these kids. We fumbled things toward the end, but they hung in there and battled. Hats off to these kids."
PORTAGE (6): Binaut ss/p 431, Kargo 2b 412, Slanoc cf 311, McCoy p/ss 300, Morgan 1b 100, Gathers 1b 100, Lawrence lf 200, Cochran 3b 310, Irvin c 401, Nesbella dh 400. Totals -- 29 6 4.
BLACKLICK VALLEY (5) Kotelnicki 1b/lf 422, Reba ss/p 222, Nedrich c 400, Kaschalk rf 401, Schilling lf/ss/p 412, Noble 3b 200, McEvoy 2b 301, Williams p/1b 300, Boring dh 100, Garver cf 100. Totals -- 31 5 8
SCORE BY INNING
Portage 200 010 21 -- 6 5 4
Blacklick Valley 011 010 20 -- 5 7 3
E-- McCoy 2, Reba 2, Binaut, Noble, Morgan. 2B -- Reba, Binaut. RBI -- Slavic 2, Kargo, Binaut, McCoy, Morgan, Reba, Kaschalk.
PITCHING
Portage: McCoy (W) -- 7IP, 8H, 10K, 2BB, 5R, 1ER. Binaut (S) -- 1 IP, 0H, 3K, 0BB, 0R, 0ER.
Blacklick Valley: Williams -- 6IP, 2H, 3L, 3BB, 3R, 0ER. Bartoletti -- 1IP, 2H, 1K, 2BB, 2R, 2ER. Reba-- 1IP, 0H, K, 2BB, 1R, 1ER. Schilling (L) 1IP, 1H, 0K, 0R, 0ER.
Records: Portage (10-12); Blacklick Valley (12-7).